The Push for Cotton Clothing

It's setting up to be a big newswek. We've got a preliminary deal to end the war in Iran, a Fed meeting, some economic data dumps Where should we begin From American Public Media, this is Marketplace In New York, I'm Kristen Schwab in for Kyra's Doll. It's Monday, june fifteenth, and it's great to be here with you. I know the big news of the day is that we might be nearing the end of the war in the Middle East. The United States and Iran have signed a framework agreement, details of the deal haven't been released And listen, when it's all really, truly over, we'll pick apart the economic effects But for now, let's focus on what in this economy is certain The Federal Reserve's open Market Committee meets this Wednesday, and it's Kevin Warsh's big debut as the new chair He's gotten a lot of pressure from President Trump to cut interest rates and make borrowing cheaper. But markets don't expect the Fed to touch rates for now, because Warsh enters the Fed at a tricky time Even if the war does officially come to a close soon, the effects are still churning in the background, including its toll on inflation, now above four percent. Marketplace's Henry Epp looks at how the Fed might navigate this moment Here's why this current bout of inflation is tricky for the Fed. It's driven by a spike in energy prices caused by the Iran warar, and energy and food prices tend to be too volatile to inform the Fed's decisions, says Andrew Clinton, head of Clinton Investment Management. And that's why historically they've looked through headline inflation, that is that include food and energy to the core inflationary numbers Core inflation last month was a lot closer to the Fed's target of two percent. Fed officials might be tempted to think this spike in inflation is temporary, except that's what they did a couple of years ago, and it didn't work out Peter Conie Brown is a profess of financial reggulation at the Wharton School. The Feds err in twenty twenty one was precisely this was to assume that the supply shocks were temporary, transitory in the word of the day And they were caught flat footed don't want to make that mistake again. So the bond market has started to indicate that it thinks the Fed will probably have to deal with inflation, says Derek Tang, an economist at the research firm, MPA Macro They do expect more of a chance the Fed might have to raise its policy interest rate. sooner rather than later And that's making some of these bond yields rise. But the guy in the White House keeps pushing for the Fed to go in the opposite direction President Trump does have a history of saying he wants lower interest rates and a recent history of threatening the Fed. The Justice Department opened criminal investigations into former Chair Jay Powell and Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who Trump also tried to fire. So what's the new chair Kevin Warsh to do One option says Peter Coni Brown is to say less. The more opaque the Fed is relative to its future policy position harder it is to be pinned down by politicians who want to beat up on it But there's a challenge in that for Warsh. He's just one of twelve members on the open Met committee, and they might not all want to stay quiet. I'm Henry App for Marketplace Wall Street today, the promise of a deal and a drop in oil prices makes for a lot of optimism. We'll have the details when we do the numbers Electricity prices are one of the many things contributing to inflation. And even as energy prices have been rising, so has demand Now some customers and lawmakers are advocating for a reinvestment in nuclear energy as a long term carbon free source of power But thats set off a debate on who pays for the cost of building new nuclear plants. From KBIA in Columbia, Missouri, Janna Rosechleice reports. State Senator Mike Moon would like to see more nuclear power plants in Missouri Now, do I want nuclear? Absolutely. Is it expensive? You beta it is However, his colleagues, Bill Irwin, Mike Steinmeier, and Joe Nicola strongly disagree on who should pay the cost for building more power plants and when If you pay up frront, it's always cheaper If you playay later, it's always more. while some people are afraid of high utility rates I'm afraid of sitting around the dark. I don't agree with using my constituents with rate payers as a bank for a free interest loan This year, Missouri politicians have debated what's called construction work in progress. more commonly referred to by its acronym quit It allows utility companies to charge customers for new power plants as they're being built Some lawmakers believe the policy can jumpstart energy investment and save residents money on utility bills As power plants go, nuclear facilities take longer to build, cost more, and often run over budget. John Kaufman, an attorney for the Consumers Council of Missouri, says nuclear power plants are a dicey investment It seems kind of the worst of all possible worlds. We're paying for power plants that are no longer serving us and they're asking us to start paying for power plants that are coming in the future. It's just we get it coming and going, right Rob Dixon is a lobbyist for utility provider Amarin He says, if customers help pay for nuclear power plants as they are built, energy companies don't have to take on as much debt It's going to keep costs lower because you're not paying higher interest over time And that means utility customers pay less Now, while the country again faces increasing electricity demand, states such as Missouri, Kansas, and North Carolina have passed varying degrees of the power plant financing policy in recent years Energy economist Michael Saykuta says it's difficult to suss out whether having a policy like QIP has a measurable impact on the amount of power a state has whether the policy spurred investment or not. but he says there is certainly anecdotal evidence without Qip Utilities have less incentive to invest, especially for very expensive projects and and therefore we don't get them built unless states and utility companies can agree on a way to pay for pricing nuclear power plants Increasing electricity demand will have to be met with other sources In Columbia, Missouri, I'm Janna Rochleice for Marketplace Every once in a while, Instagram and Facebook force me to look back at some memory that happened a decade or so ago. And wow, was the internet a different place We wore wedge sneakers. We loved Grumpy Cat. Remember planking Maybe the best trends to come out of that time though, were the ones tied to charitable giving I'm talking about the ice bucket challenge and other campaigns that made getting involved easy and fun But the vibes today are a little different, which is why this story caught my eye. The headline How generosity became cringe Sarah Herschander is a fellow at Vox's Future Perfect Sarah, thanks for joining us. Of course. Thanks for having me So take us back to the early twenty ten s when social media felt maybe a bit more innocent What did charity movements look like online back then? Yeah, I think we had this really kind of seminal moment where for the first time more Americans were like on social media on pllatforms like Facebook for the very first time and off of it. And I think a lot of people felt like there was possibility in that. So We saw the Facebook being a really important tool used in movements like occupy Wall Street. And when it came to charity, we sort of saw the same thing. And one of the most prominent was the ice bucket challenge. So if folks remember back in twenty fourteen, there was this challenge where to raise money for ALS. people would pour buckets of ice water on their head and tag a few friends to do it. It really took off and millions of people ended up participating. But it's something that we saw just kind of broadly on the internet at the time because it was sort of an earnest place People were really kind of bragging about their charity to one another Yeah, the ice bucket challenge almost became a cool thing to be tagged in. I mean, it wasn't it was regular people, it was celebrities What were some other things you saw trend at that time There were other very sort of short lived massive trends like the Bet challenge. We also saw November if people remember, those kind of silly little mustaches that people would draw back in like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. That was also a charity trend to raise awareness for men's health every November. And then we also saw some more enduring movements pop up around that One was giving Tuesday which began as a hashtag and sort of like as a counterweight to Black Friday. And that was a movement to get people to donate. This all happened in like a four year time period where society just seemed to be kind of optimistic online in a way that feels a little bit distant now. Yeah, things have changed so much. I mean, hashtags aren't even aren't even in the conversation anymore. Yeah. Okay, so let's fast forward because the headline of your story is how generosity became Cinge When do you think it became cringe and what was What was the turning point that you saw Yeah, that's a good question. I think something really important happened in twenty fourteen And that was the killing of Michael Brown and sort of the Black Lives Matter movement. There were people who in their feed or on their Twitter timelines were seeing like a lot of Black Life Matter movement stuff, and there were other people who were just seeing the ice bucket challenge We started to see social media platforms like Facebook really prioritize algorithms over those sort of person to person connections. fast forward to the pandemic. and by then people are feeling a lot more cynical. One of the sort of, I think, good examples of that is if you remember Gal Gadau made that imagine video. as sort of like a way to soothe society and people who did it And something I think about and think I think a big reason that they hated it was because it felt cringe, it felt toneed And I think that applies to a lot of the sort of performative earnestness that we used to see earlier in the internet How has the cringe part of this impacted how much organizations have been able to raise? Yeah, I mean, we're seeing a real impact. Most people or most young people do prefer to give online these days and the fact that they're just not seeing that kind of Friends tagging friends and bragging about giving to charity is having a real impact on how Americans give. And over the past decade or so, we've seen fewer and fewer everyday Americans giving to charity What I've heard from charity leaders is that it's just harder to get your cause in front of people these days. I spoke to the leader of Charity Water, for example. It's like an international aid organization focusing on getting clean water around the world. It was like a huge celebrity darling in the early twenty thousand ten s. Justin Bieber was doing these fundraisers for his birthday Iceberg And he straight up told me, like we do not raise money like we used to. Our sort of influencer culture just doesn't prioritize charity in the same way that the internet used to Is there a world do you think where we want virality back when it comes to charity? And is that even possible I think there's a world where we want earnestness back. When I talk to people in the charity world about what they want to see More often than not, they tell me that they look offline for it. So they're thinking about ways they can engage people directly in their communities. That's where people still seem to feel earnestness and that sort of responsibility to one another that really undergirds philanthropy and generosity H That might not be such a bad thing actually. Sarah Hersander is a fellow covering philanthropy at Box. Sarah, thanks for sharing your reporting Of course, thank you so much for having me We're only a handful of days into the World Cup, and the event is already breaking records During their first match, the US men's national team had more viewers tune in than ever before. And of the nearly twenty five million people who watched, some nine million were watching in Spanish As Marketplace's Elizabeth Troval reports, the sporting event is massively important for advertisers that want to reach Latino consumers whose purchasing power grows increasingly relevant beinging a proud Colombia football fan, Julian Bacquerro says his immigrant dad still cheered on the US men's team against Paraguay during their first game He felt embraced by the US in such a way that there's no other choice but to be supportive of the team Cero with big oak tree media says of course they watch the game in Espanol. The Spanish broadcasting, when you listen to it, it's contagious. It's contagious the energy that you feel when you hear them place for brands to connect with Hispanics, says Isabella Sanchez with the ad firm Zubie marketers can really tap into what makes Hispanics tick, which is their language, their sports, their home team It's an important market. US Latino GDP has grown to four point four trillion dollars, according to the most recent data from the Latino Donor Collaborative Envaldez is CEO grow As consumers, they grow in capacity, they grow in number, they grow in workforce to engage that market, Rodrigo Vallejo with Roe two media says authenticity is key I think that it's got to be more insightful from people that understand more the sport, understand more the culture, understand How the passion that the Hispanic Gudiian has for the sport and for the World Cup Though Franco Caballero, with marketing from Vieste, says there's also a broader community advertisers can tap into beyond that core Spanish speaking World Cup audience That's when you start to bring in all these other cohorts, some of them who are so obvious and often ignored, which could be spouses cohabitants and immediately adjacent neighbors and community members He says it's good business to think inclusively Anyone can appreciate a good No I'm Elizabeth Toval for Marketplace. Coming up. I hate social media But it's a necessary evil You can't run a business without being online. But first, let's do the numbers The Dow Jones indndustrial average rose four hundred and sixty eight points, nine tenths percent to finish at fifty one thousand six hundred seventy one. The NSDAq added seven hundred ninety five points, three and one tenth percent to close at twenty six thousand six hundred eighty three. and the SMP five hundred gained one hundred twenty two points, one and two thirds percent to end at seventy five fifty four Oil futures were down, Brent Cude flowed down four and one tenth percent, and West Texas Intermediate lost four percent. That was bad news for oil stocks, but good news for travel companies. Airbnb rang up five percent, American Airlines Group ascended three and two tenths percent. Bnds rose, the yield on the tenure te notote fell to four point four seven percent. You're listening to Marketplace This is Marketplace. I'm Kristin Schwab The cultural campaign against plastic has focused on different products over the years First, single use water bottles and shopping bags, then kitchen items like tuppaware Now the conversation is all about what's in your closet Social media is filled with influencers rallying against synthetic fabrics like polyester and pushing natural materials like cotton Sounds like a no brainer, but it turns out that making the best decision about what you wear is more complicated than it seems Mia Sato is a reporter at the Verge, where she wrote about Americans' renewed obsession with cotton. Mia, welcome back to the program Yeah, always happy to join So I have to admit that I am one of those people that has been paying more attention to fabric content these days. But I didn't realize there's actually a government push behind some of this. Tell me about the Great American cotton plan Yes, The Great American Cotton planl was announced by the Department of Agriculture and HHS earlier this month. So it's still relatively new. But it is kind of building on existing marketing, especially that has already existed. So one element of the plan is subsidies for American cotton farmers But another part that maybe will be more public facing is the federal government will promote the National Cotton Council's plant not plastic marketing campaign. And it basically tries to encourage consumers to buy products made with American cotton over, let's say, polyester. And you talk about in your story about How some of this comes from cotton farmers actually having a tough time here in the US. Tell me more about that Yes. So you know, cotton farmers are under pressures, especially price pressures And some of it, as I wrote in the piece comes actually from uh, at least in part from federal policy. So The tariff war, the trade war that the Donald Trump administration has been waging has raised prices for cotton farmers. Equipment costs more, fertilizer costs more. So it's partially to sort of prop up this industry that has been hit hard. And also the other side that we can get into more is that The make America healthy, again, the Maha movement is kind of also taking on cotton as part of its one prong of its strategy or ideology Yo, what about the health side of this? Is it better for your body that's something that has come up a lot in marketing language, especially and sort of influencer types. And The science is complicated We know that there are microplastics in the human body. What effect that has on the human body is less defined. And it's also there's a lot of disagreement among scientists about how to measure this. So the science, I think, is still evolving, but The branding has really taken on this sort of anti microplastic, low quote unquote, low toxicity marketing language. I mean, even cotton itself isn't always so innocent, right? It's treated. as a product in the field, maybe treated after a garment is finished. Yes, absolutely. And this is sort of the response to the Great American Cotton plant that I was most interested by was actually some Maha influencers said that plan was like greenwashing, basically. First of all, it's a very water intensive crop. If it's not organic, it's being fertilized with chemical fertilizers and pesticides and things like that. And cotton can be treated with chemicals that make it more wrinkle resistant or stain resistant, for example. And so then there's a question of like, okay, are these chemicals good for me? So it just ends up becoming this sort of like circular sort of a maze of consumers trying to find the quote unquote best or healthiest option. And I think people will quickly find that it's really not so simple Well, how do you make choices then when you walk into a store? Did your reporting change how you shop or how you look at your closet It's something that I've thought about for many years. I love shopping. This is like a very fun hobby for me. But yeah, it's really not easy. I think my tactic has really been buy as little as humanly possible. and when I can and when I have the money to do so, support you know small organizations or companies that are transparent about where their products and where their materials come from. Mia Sato is a reporter at the Verge. Mia thanks for coming on the show. Anytime, thank you so much There are some big economic bullet points to watch this week. We already talked about the Fed meeting happening Wednesday Also out that day, retail sales for May We'll be watching those numbers to get the fifty thousand foot view of how consumers are doing. But while we wait, let's get the five foot view Philip Rollins runs the record and comic shop off beat in Jackson, Mississippi. He gave us this update. Business is surprisingly good This has probably been one of the better years that we've been having so far Yes, I'm surprised. I drive a Ford escape and I pay it takes fifty bucks to fill it up, which, you know I'm inacks, Mississippi so that's a lot when I was paying like thirty bucks So I'm like, dang thats that's going to hurt. But I have had customers like, you know, scale back on like we have pool lists. So they would get like these comments a week. So I've had people scale back due to you know, budgeting for other things hate social media But it's a necessary evil It's the best thing for advertising. I always ask like somebody I don't recognize or I'm very absute minded and I'll be like, Oh, how'd you hear about the store? And they'll like, oh, I saw it on Tikok. And I'm like, well, I need to be on TikTok more. The most the things that get the most hits is when my big face is on there. So I had to put my big face out there and talk and Do twenty takes until I like one and then edit it and put it out there You're not gonna catch me doing like a dance or anything. But you know, highlighting the things that we got here showing also that Jackson isn't just, you know This perception of what the world thinks it is is like, no, we have cool stuff here Philip Rollins doing the socials for his store off Beat in Jackson, Mississippi This final note on the way out today saw this in Reuters. reopening the Strait of Hormoz is not going to be like flipping a light switch. Maritime security experts say it could take weeks to make sure the waterway is safe from mines Meanwhile, stateside, US. oil reserves had hit a forty three year low. Amir Babawi, Caitlin Esh, John Gordon, Nooya Karr, Steve Mullis and Stephanie Seek are the Marketplace editing staff. Kelly Silvera is the news director, and I'm Kristen Schwab. We'll see you back here tomorrow This is APM.